My Foxy British Bride
by Cazuki
Summary: When Alfred was six years old he met an imaginary friend in the woods beside his home. When he was seven, he had to move away to America, leaving Arthur behind but promising they would marry when they grew up. Twenty years later and many things have changed. But, with Alfred coming back to Britain, will he remember the promise he made? Rated M for later chapters, Reviews wanted.
1. An Old Letter

**Hey Everybody, Caz here with a new piece. This is actually a request from the kink meme but I thought it would do better as a stand-alone title. hank you for reading in advance and reviews are much appreciated.**

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Dear Me from the future,

If you are reading this then either you have remembered or you have found this by accident and are probably confussed confused about this.

My name is Alfred Jones, though my friends call me Alfie. I am seven years old and in a few days I will be moving away from my house in Engwand England Britain with my Papa to live with my Mama and brother in Ahmerika (did I spell that wrong?).

I'm excited about seeing my brother, who I've never met because Papa said Mama wanted to work in Ahmerika and took him there and left us here to sell the house. My Papa is a really nice Papa, he's got a beard and long yellow blond hair and speaks in a weird accent which makes me laugh when he laughs that 'honhonhon' laugh of his. I don't know much about Mama, though I've heard she is very nice too. I'm so excited I can't stop bouncing everywhere!

What was I meant to be writing again?

Oh, right!

Me from the future. I don't know how many years it has been since I've written this letter to yo- myself? You probably forgot a lot of things about our old home, like how the floor of your room creaked whenever you walked on it and how everything looked so old and weird (wired? Werid?) odd and yet you felt strange in any place that wasn't like it. You might have even forgotten the forest that is next door to our home! (It's called Flying Bunny Forest, by the way!) But, there is one thing you shouldn't forget and that person is a boy named –

"Arthur Kirkland…" Alfred mumbled as he read the name out loud to himself.

The letter he held in his hands was old, very old, in fact, it was twenty years old. The edges of the paper had yellowed slightly over the years and the writing itself was in no better condition, slightly faded and hard to read with the multiple crossings out, random notes off to the side and ink blots where he had been careless. He smiled, his eyes going slightly hazy as he remembered those times. Things had been simpler, back then. All Alfred had had to worry about then was getting his homework in on time and not getting shouted at by his teachers at school and, probably most prominent of all, meeting his imaginary friend in the forest next to their home.

He remembered what the other looked like, if only vaguely. He'd been about his age, and was a boy like Alfred was. He'd had sandy blond hair which was always dirty and ruffled. He would have worn old rags as clothing, of which Alfred could remember taking some from his house and giving to the boy. His name, he remembered, had been Arthur Kirkland. Pretty normal, right? Well, it would have been if he didn't have fox ears and a tail.

His ears had been placed on top of his head, among the tufts of hair and were coloured much the same, with a little white fur at their tips. His tail had been long and fluffy and Alfred could remember in the winter months he had spent with Arthur, that tail wrapping around him and the white fur on the end of it ticking his nose as he tried not to shiver.

He was remembering they day they met, when his Dad had taken him out to the forest to explore when he was six and had lost him partway through, leaving Alfred alone in the dark, cold and scary forest at night. That was when he'd first me Arthur, a small fox boy who approached him as if Alfred was some threat to him. His dad, Francis, had found him sometime after, apparently laying against a tree and sleeping like a baby with no-one else beside him.

"Alfred?"

Alfred could even remember his voice, how it had been so quiet and soothing and so… British.

"Alfred."

It was sad that the other had only been imaginary. Especially considering the promise he had made to him the night before he had moved away twenty years ago.

"Alfie! Hey, wake up you dunce!"

Alfred felt himself jerked back into reality as he was shaken rather roughly by the person sitting in the seat next to him. Alfred looked to his left to meet eyes with the brother he had been so excited to meet twenty years ago.

"I wasn't asleep Matthew."

He said as he pushed his brother's arms off him and straightened himself.

"You were pretty damn close to it, poser." The other said, smirking slightly at having ruffled his older brother's feathers.

This man was Alfred's younger brother, Matthew Jones, though he preferred the last name Williams as he didn't seem to want to associate himself with the family. Out of the two brothers, Matthew had undoubtedly taken a lot from Dad's genes, with his silky blond hair, cute looks and skills with other languages, namely French.

Sadly, he'd taken some of Francis's bad traits too, like his flirty disposition, dry sense of humour and-

"Were you thinking about a girl again? Seriously dude, go and get a hooker and get laid already. You're already twenty-seven!"

-inate lack of shame.

Alfred felt himself almost bolt up from his plane seat before noticing he had the seat buckle on, which pulled him back down and winded him for a short moment. He turned to his brother and growled slightly, clutching his abdomen as he spoke.

"Will you stop saying stuff like that in public places, you idiot!"

He looked around to see a couple of business-people staring at the two of them as they all sat in their business-class flight to England.

It had been twenty years since Alfred had moved to America and in those twenty years, many things had changed. He'd grown up, for one thing. He wasn't a cry-baby anymore who needed an imaginary friend to comfort him when he was scared at night. His personality, through constant years of school work as well as other's teasing, such as his brother's and his father's, had changed as well, turning him into a more serious man with an acute mind and a dry wit. He'd also gotten a job, and a good one at that, as a manager for an international advertising company which dealt in everything from videogames to fashion statements.

You may be wondering why Alfred, now a highly competent business man, was on his way to England with his brother. Well, to put it simply, he was moving for his job. You see, the people that Alfred managed came from all around the world, though most of them had collected in England and since it was rather hard to manage a culturally diverse group in the states, Alfred had been sent over with his secretary, Matthew, to watch over them.

He'd found the old letter written by his seven year old self while he had been packing his stuff and had taken it with him on the flight, trying to hide it from his brother who, if he saw the contents, would probably die of laughter.

"Yeah, whatever, poser." Matthew continued, apparently not caring as to the other people staring at him. In fact, he loved it and so he had gained another of their Dad's bad traits. Being an attention whore, in more ways than one.

Alfred face palmed.

"Brother, would please try and at least ___act_ professional, you're coming to England with me as my secretary."

Matthew looked back at him with a grin and before Alfred could think of moving away, Matthew kissed his brother on the cheek on both sides. A common greeting for the other, though he knew that people would take it the other way.

"Oh, dear brother of mine, you must know that I ___always_ act professional. Don't worry, I won't embarrass you _too _much."

Alfred blushed deeply for a moment, frozen before he realized what the other had done and felt an overpowering need to sock his 'dear brother' in the jaw. The flight had continued much like this, the letter and its contents forgotten as the two brothers argued for the rest of the ensuing flight until the buckle light came on and they came in for a landing at Heathrow Airport, where they would be taken to their new home to live together for god knows how long.

In the taxi, as they drove through the night, Alfred was leaning on his hand and looking out the window while his brother, affected by jet-lag, slept on his shoulder, snoring loudly and almost drooling on him.

As the night zoomed by, the moon covered by the branches of various trees, Alfred couldn't help but feel slightly anxious.

___I wonder how much this place has changed since I was here… I wonder how much… he's changed?_

Alfred started denying that as soon as the thought came into his mind and sighed lightly, luckily not waking his brother before he dropped off as well, his mind filled with warm images of a certain imaginary friends smile.

Meanwhile, in the dead of night, in the deepest, darkest parts of an old and familiar forest. A man with emerald green eyes laid awake at the side of a small pool of rainwater. The man smiled.

"He's back."


	2. Homecoming

By the time they had gotten to their destination, the sun was already rising and the sky had turned a pale shade of grey. Alfred was awoken by the stopping of the taxi and looked towards the driver to see him looking back at him, making a hand symbol which asked for due payment. Alfred stretched himself lightly, shifting his brother off his shoulder and onto the taxi seat as he dug around in his pockets and pulled out a black leather wallet. He pulled out the required sum and a little extra for the driver dealing with his brother's loud snoring and then opened his door, walking out and slamming it, which finally seemed to awaken his brother from his comatose.

"Here already?" Matthew said as he got out of the taxi and went to the boot to pick up his suitcase, stretching and popping his muscles as he did so.

"You've been sleeping for six hours, Matthew." Alfred responded dryly as he opened the boot and took out a suitcase and briefcase, one of which housed some clothes and other things and one which he used for business and had the letter hidden inside of it.

"Six hours, dude that's not nearly enough time, a hottie like me has gotta have his beauty sleep, eh?" Matthew responded, adept at ignoring his brother's attempts at outwitting him. "Oh, and by the way." He continued, suddenly right up in his brother's face, licking his lips as his almost purple eyes flared with lust "you wouldn't mind calling me Mattie, would you?"

Matthew suddenly felt something punch him dangerously close to his balls and he doubled over before looking up at his brother, whose eyes seemed to be filled with anger while his face was as bright red as a Christmas tree light.

"Hah." Matthew said as he tried to recover, feeling winded by the blow "Such a virgin."

"Shut up!" Alfred said before just up and leaving Matthew to get up and grab his own cases before closing the boot and watching the driver go off into the distance, down an old road which weaved in and out of the forest, quietly scheming as to how to get his 'dear older brother' back for almost depriving him of his reproductive system.

Meanwhile, Alfred was looking at the place they would be staying, sighing and yet smiling at the same time. The team that Alfred would be managing was located in the more rural parts of Britain, his higher ups saying it worked better for productivity to work in an environment which most cultures knew about and so, when Alfred had been given the order to move, he had just so happened to get the one place he thought he would never see again.

In front of him was the cottage he had left twenty years ago. Most of it was the same as it had been back then, though slightly worse for wear. The walls were still a warm cream, though the paint had discoloured in places and in others seemed to have disappeared entirely, leaving only the white stone behind. The roof, once excellently tiled, had had some of the tiles fall off to the ground, leaving some of it bare. The windows seemed to be mostly okay, though Alfred knew he'd had to get them double glazed to reduce energy costs.

By now, Matthew had come to his side and gave him a nudge slightly harder than necessary as he walked ahead of him.

"Stop gawking like a retard Alfie! We got some work to do!"

Alfred growled slightly at the comment and shouted back at his brother,

"I know that, and stop calling me Alfie, I outgrew that name long ago!"

Of course, the other just laughed and Alfred followed after him, grumbling curses at the other as he did.

When they were inside at last, it seemed like they had entered a different world. A rather old-fashioned world to be exact. Everything had been kept almost exactly as it had been before, though there had been some new things installed over the various years and owners.

Matthew dumped his stuff in a messy pile and walked into the living room, where there was a flat-screen TV and couch and various other things that had been moved here from their American home, all wrapped in plastic just waiting to be torn open.

"Yay, TV!"

"At least _try_ and be an adult" Alfred said as he walked in, his stuff placed delicately on the floor.

"At least _try_ and not be a wet blanket!" Matthew responded "you try and not be amazed by one thousand channels-"

"Of shit…" Alfred added

"Don't you dare insult the TV, poser. You may have had shit cartoons when you were little, but this is cable TV!"

"Yeah, whatever." Alfred said, smiling smugly as he rolled his eyes. In truth, Alfred didn't hate TV, (hell, he loved watching movies on it) but he had never revered it as much as his brother had, a quirk on which he blamed America's overly high use of TV on children at a young age.

"Anyway." Alfred said, swiftly moving on before his brother could comment on something else "we gotta get this plastic off."

"Aw, so we don't get to watch TV and sit on a couch through plastic. I'm disillusioned."

"Shut up…" Alfred sighed as he started to take the plastic off the couch.

A couple of hours passed of Alfred and Matthew taking stuff out of it's plastic wrapping, boxes and other containers and placing them in their rightful places. The cottage had about seven rooms; two bathrooms, two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen with space for a table included and an office. After Alfred had finished placing the last few bits of cutlery in the kitchen drawers and wiping down the table top of the kitchen, he breathed out a content sigh and looked around. He already felt at home here, which wasn't very surprising.

He walked into the living room to find that Matthew had yet again fallen asleep, now on the couch in a rather undignified position. Alfred massaged his temple. No wonder he hadn't heard anything from the other in over thirty minutes. He walked over and thought of carrying the other to a bed when, out of the corner of his eye, something ran by a window in the living-room.

Alfred forgot about his brother for a moment as he looked outside, moving towards the window. The window didn't show much, just the now blue sky and the dense forest that surrounded the cottage.

_It couldn't be… could it?_ He thought as he looked around for any hint of someone being there. He was about to give up when he saw some bushes rustle and then he felt as if his body was moving on its own as he left his brother snoring on the couch and went straight to the front door, opening it without a care as to get the keys from his brother and ran out, slamming the door behind him.

He went for the forest and the bushes he had seen rustling. He pawed through them but found nothing, then saw some sort of tracks In the moist ground.

_Human foot prints?_ He thought as he started to walk into the forest, following them. His clothes weren't meant for the forest, overly casual and shoes not hard-wearing. He didn't care though as he continued to follow the tracks, moving past all the trees as he went deeper and deeper into the forest.

At some point, the tracks just stopped and Alfred thought of giving up and turning back, knowing Matthew would have a field day, wondering why he had left. He was about to go when he heard a noise. He turned quickly and everything was silent, except for the slight rustling of the branches above him.

The sound came again and this time, Alfred could identify it. It sounded like someone trying to speak.

"Hello?"

A pause.

"Hello."

Another pause.

"Is anyone there?"

"A-Al." the voice said, stuttering and coming from an unknown place and yet everywhere at the same time, like it was reverberating in Alfred's skull. Alfred visibly twitched, his serious persona slipping slightly before he drew himself up to his full height.

"Hello, who are you?" he said with a serious tone.

The voice made a sound like laughing and then there was the sound of branches moving erratically and Alfred looked up to see a shape in the branches, rapidly moving away from him.

He grit his teeth. Who was this person?

He started to run now, not caring as to the obstacles in his way as he ran through the forest, past animal dens and holes in the ground and tree trunk, doubly thick than Alfred's body. He didn't care about any of those, following the sound of the figure in the branches, who he couldn't clearly see from the ground.

"Hey!" he shouted towards the figure "stop running, what are you doing on my property!?"

Eventually, he came to a clearing in the forest, where the trees parted and there was only grass, flowers and a small but deep pool which seemed to have been made by collected rainwater.

Alfred stopped and looked around frantically, trying to find the other in vain.

_Where are they? _ He questioned in his head.

As he looked around, he took in the clearing, with all it's beautiful plants and the sun glimmering of the pool of rainwater. It was a nice place and so… nostalgic. Alfred smiled at a strange fuzzy feeling in his chest and mind and turned around to see two gleaming emerald eyes right in his face.

"Ya-hah!" he shouted (not screamed, not at all) as he moved back and fell down, now by the pool's edge as he looked at the figure in front of him, who was looking straight at him. The other wasn't wearing much in the way of clothing, only a sort of old pair of jeans which were torn every whichway. He was a thin figure, though not unheatily so and was faily tanned by his lack of protection from the sun. Alfred looked up further, his head feeling dizzy as he recognized features one by one. The man had emerald eyes, slightly different than a human in terms of the iris shape and snady blond hair, tussled everywhere. Though, most notable were three features. One, the other had eyebrows which looked like fuzzy caterpillars had crawled onto the other's face and died. Two, were the fox ears which the other sported, almost hidden among his hair except for their white tips. And third, and probably most strange of all, was that the other had two tails – yeah, two fox tails. Both were the same colour, sandy blond with white tips.

Alfred was shocked for a moment, unable to speak or even breathe as the other stood right in front of him, the tails swaying and the ears flicking as the other prepared to say something, slowly and carefully as if Alfred could cause the other harm.

"Hi, uh, Alfie…"

The voice was quiet, soothing and most of all… British.

It was all too much for Alfred and as he felt his consciousness slip away, both due to jet lag and the strange thing standing in front of him, he thought.

_Arthur…_

Then he fell unconscious, snoring quietly as the other came up to him, sighing as he looked at Alfred, the smiling and laughing slightly.

"You did that when we met for the first time too."

Alfred, through his black mind, then felt himself be moved and placed against some sort of hard surface, before two soft ligaments were wrapped around him, warming him greatly as well as tickling his nose slightly. He breathed out a sigh of content and slipped fully into sleep, leaning against the warm body next to him.

Somehow, he felt like he was sleeping better now than he had for the last twenty years.


	3. Peek-a-bo Who's there?

Alfred didn't know how long he had been resting for when he slowly opened his eyes again. The first thing he saw was the pond of rainwater, completely still and unmoving. It looked almost like a perfect plane mirror. The second thing he noticed was that it was darker than before, like it was late evening. Alfred shuffled a bit.

"Mmph."

He heard that irritated noise next to him and felt something, or someone, snuggle into his side. Alfred's eyes opened wide, suddenly completely awake as he turned to his left. He now noticed two things; one, he had two fox tails wrapped around him and two, there was someone next to him, sleeping with their head leant on his shoulder as they snored peacefully.

It didn't take Alfred long to remember what had happened before he fainted, with him running into the forest and coming to this clearing before suddenly meeting a strange fox man with green eyes who looked very similar to his childhood imaginary friend, albeit with another tail and older now.

When Alfred had the full image in his mind as to what was going on, he immediately shuffled away from the other, going to stand and look back at the other, who remained asleep for a few moments before opening their eyes and looking up at him as if nothing was wrong.

"Alfie… what's wrong?"

Alfred felt a cold sweat go down his spine as he heard the other say his childhood nickname.

"H-how do you know my name?" Alfred asked, trying to look serious though his tone faltered and he stuttered a bit.

The strange fox-person-thing crooked an eyebrow for a moment, before getting up, his ears flicking and his tails swaying in a subtly irritated way, like a cat.

"You don't remember me?" he asked, looking faintly confused. Arthur had been sure that the other would remember him, after all, he had made _that _promise to him.

"N-no, I don't." Alfred replied, though he knew he was lying. Of course he remembered the other, he just didn't believe the other existed.

Arthur's expression darkened for a moment, a single solitary moment. Then the other smiled and before Alfred could think as to why the other was smiling, or as to why he had looked so strange for a moment, Arthur dashed forward and suddenly Alfred was blind.

Not completely blind, mind you. He drew his hand to his face and noticed his glasses were no longer there.

"Hey!" he shouted as he turned around, trying to make out the shape of the other, which wasn't easy considering everything around Alfred were now just blurry blobs. The rapidly declining light didn't help either. "Give me back my glasses!" he shouted again, his voice more indignant than authoritative.

There was a pause and then the voice of the other came through, though Alfred couldn't tell where it was coming from again.

"What are these?" he asked curiously, seemingly completely impassive of the other's tone.

Alfred growled slightly and looked around feverently, though, finding it was of no use, sighed and answered the other.

"They're called 'glasses' they let me see things…"

"That's weird, why would need glasses to see when you have perfectly good sight already?"

Alfred face-palmed, feeling his patience grow even thinner than it had been earlier.

"I don't have perfectly good sight! That's why I have glasses!" He shouted again.

He was met with laughter, innocent laughter.

"Heh heh, you're still so sensitive. That's not very adult of you, Alfie~"

"I am not sensitive! And stop calling me Alfie, my name is Alfred!"

"I _know_ your name's Alfred, Alfie. Otherwise, I wouldn't know to call you Alfie, now would I?" the voice retorted. Alfred could almost feel the smile behind the other's words and part of him wondered if he had pissed the other off somehow.

"Whatever!" he exclaimed "Just give me my glasses back!"

There was a pause, as if for mock thought. Then a simple;

"No."

Alfred seemed struck dumb for a moment. He should have been used to this, considering his father and brother did this with him most days. But, coming from the other, who he was still denying existed, it somehow touched him deeper and made more of his emotions come out, which had sworn he had grown out of.

"What do ya mean, no!?" he shouted, covering his mouth with his hands as he noticed he let out a bit of an accent, something he normally took great pains to hide.

The voice laughed again.

"Exactly what I said. No. Unless…"

"Unless, what?" Alfred questioned, knowing he was being lead along as he still looked around for the other and found he couldn't see anything in the coming night, let alone a fox man who could hide in trees.

"Unless~" there was a dramatic pause "You tell me my name."

Alfred froze again, not speaking for a while before responding.

"No."

"Huh?" the other asked "what do you mean, no?"

Déjà vu.

"I don't know your name."

"Of course you do! There is no way you couldn't remember."

"I don't. know." Alfred said curtly.

The voice didn't respond and Alfred wondered whether the other had left before he suddenly felt something behind him. Before he could turn, He was hugged from behind and his eyes were covered with something soft.

"Peek-a-bo. Who's there?"

"What!?"

"Peek-a-bo. Who's there? Come on Alfie, you have to remember at least this, it was a game we used to play. Guess the voice."

Alfred couldn't help the memory coming into his mind, of the nights and days they had spent playing silly games together. This had been one of their favourites, especially at night when they couldn't see each other well.

"Come on Alfie, guess."

"No…"

"Guess."

"No."

"Guess~"

"No!"

"Guess or I'll lick your ear~"

Alfred felt his heart skip a beat and himself blush before he gave up, knowing the other was probably serious.

"Fine! Hello, Arthur!"

Suddenly, Alfred was let go and his eyes were uncovered at the same time. He then felt his glasses be placed back on and he quickly turned to see Arthur standing behind him, smiling, having happily got his revenge.

"Hello, Alfie! That was good for a first time, though next time, call me Artie, okay?"

Alfred felt like a vein on his skull was throbbing and was very close to jumping on the other when he took a deep breath and calmed himself down.

"We're not kids anymore Arthur…"

"I whole-heartily agree!" the other exclaimed happily, clapping together his hands with dash of finality, as if they had only just now gotten to the meat of the subject.

"What?"

"Yeah, we aren't children anymore. That is why I want to talk to you about your promi-"

"Alfred!" A shout came, cutting off Arthur. It was familiar and Alfred soon identified it as Matthew's voice. He must have woken up and started looking for Alfred. Alfred would have smiled, if he didn't think it was because his brother probably wanted him to cook dinner, though he could well cook for himself.

He turned towards the voice and shouted back.

"I'm here Matthew!"

He turned back and suddenly, Arthur wasn't there anymore.

Alfred was shocked for a moment and looked around for the other but found he could not, yet again, find the other if he didn't want to be seen.

"What? Where'd you go?"

He didn't have time to think about that as Matthew came into the clearing and jumped at him, hugging him for a moment before drawing back.

"Alfie, I want food!"

Alfred sighed, he'd been right.

"Yeah, yeah. Come on." He said, prying Matthew off him, who kept reattaching just to annoy him. They walked out of the clearing and back towards their house, bickering constantly along the way.

Meanwhile, up in some of the highest tree branches, Arthur looked down at the two men and grit his teeth, his innocent expression lost as his furrowed his eyebrows and growled. Who was this man and what was he doing with his Alfie?

There was a solid 'thunk' behind him and he turned quickly, glaring at the figure who stood on a branch not-so-far from him. In the disappearing light, he could see the other had a tail like his, though only one and eyes which shone a poison green instead of his emerald. He didn't need to observe those though, to know who it was.

"What are you doing here Alistair?" Arthur growled.

"Just watching the show." The other chuckled "it is so rare to see you put on the innocent act, my gracious king." The other mock bowed "but really, aren't you too old for fairy-tale love?"

"Alistair." Arthur said curtly, standing to face the other.

The other chuckled again and put his hands up in a mock surrender position.

"Now, now, no need to get so angry A.R.T.I.E." Alistair said, articulating every syllable through his thick accent "you wouldn't want your Alfie to get scared now, would you?"

"Don't you call him that, you bastard!"

"Heh, yeah. I am a bastard, ain't I?"

Before Arthur could think of attacking the other, the other just grinned and ran off, leaving Arthur there to think, hate and worry.


	4. New People

The next day came around fairly uneventfully, after Alfred and Matthew had returned from the forest. Of course, Matthew had asked Alfred no end of questions about why he had been in the forest.

"You're very irresponsible!" he had accused Alfred as they ate a rather late dinner of Spaghetti Bolognese, prepared by Alfred "I could have been eaten by wolves, you know?"

To which Alfred had sighed and responded,

"There aren't any wolves in that forest Matthew, I have never seen one and even if there were I doubt they could get through an old oak door."

"You never know!" the other exclaimed, undeterred "they could have come through a window! Or maybe they're werewolves! What would I do then, eh?"

_Scream…_ Alfred thought, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

Matthew noticed and proceeded to continue his rant, eating spoonful's of pasta in-between while Alfred tiredly avoided the same questions and absorbed the same insults.

Eventually, the two brothers got to their individual bedrooms, splitting ways with a few quick insults before entering their rooms. Alfred's room was much the same as it had been before, with an old wooden floor which creaked as he walked as well as the old blue paint on the walls that his Father had put up for him. He sorted out the items in his suitcase and briefcase, putting them all in their right places.

Eventually, he found the letter, hidden deep within a thin pocket on the inside of Alfred's briefcase. Alfred, for a moment, felt as if he wanted to throw the letter away, forget the past and never go into that forest again. He was going to do it to, aiming the letter at the nearest trash receptacle. He aimed once,

Twice,

Thrice.

Then sighed and placed the letter in his sock drawer, hiding it under a rather ghastly pair of Christmas socks his mother had bought him five years ago, or which he had never worn. He then sat on his bed, taking off his shoes, socks and the rest of his clothing, putting on a pair of pyjamas – which were a plain black colour – and went under the covers. All the while, his head was spinning with images of a forgotten time. Part of him so wished to forget those memories, or him and Arthur playing in the forest until they passed out from exhaustion. Part of him wanted to forget how the other had looked so sweet when he smiled and how he was so kind and almost fragile. Part of him wanted to forget the promise he had made to the other.

But then again, part of him didn't.

Alfred soon fell asleep, rolling around slightly in his sleep. He had never slept as well without Arthur by his side. He knew that.

_Beep, beep, beep. Beep, beep, beep._

The alarm clock rang at seven a.m. the next morning, it's shrill blare filling the expanse of the rather small room.

_Beep, beep, beep. Beep, beep, beep._

"Al…"

Another noise joined the fray, a voice this time. Alfred growled quietly to himself as he turned over, not wishing to wake up and face the world. He had too much to think about.

_Beep, beep, beep. Beep, beep, beep._

"Al."

_Knock._

There was a knock on Alfred's door, which caused Alfred to bark a rather annoyed.

"Shut up, I'm sleeping!" before collapsing back down and trying to fall asleep again, hoping the noises would stop of their own accord.

_Beep, beep, beep. Beep, beep, beep._

"Alfie!"

_Bash, bash, bash._

Alfred was about to bark back again when suddenly everything turned quiet for a moment. Alfred thought he'd won when suddenly his door was rather loudly kicked in, leaving Matthew standing in its frame, already dressed.

"Alfred! Wake up!"

Alfred was already caught off guard by the other kicking in his door, let alone him calling him by his given name, which normally meant the other was serious.

Matthew looked a lot different in his work clothes than in his formal attire. For one, his hair was tamer, though one small curl always defied the iron rule of his comb and hair gel. Secondly, he looked a lot more professional, with a black suit jacket, a white shirt, black dress trousers as well as fake glasses to boot. Matthew liked to say he wore his work clothes so formally because he'd always been a fan of dirty office play, though Alfred just thought the other took his job seriously, despite all appearances of not.

Going back to the situation at hand, while Alfred was slightly shocked by both his brother's entrance and words, he was still groggy and growled at the other.

"Go away Matthew."

"Do you know what time it is!?" the other exclaimed, clearly losing patience with his older brother. The other had always been a terrible morning person and a heavy sleeper.

"7."

"No, it's 8. You dumbass."

There was a pause, a long pause, such a long pause you could almost hear the cogs in Alfred's brain starting to turn slowly.

Then, the silence imploded as Alfred threw off his covers and got up at almost the speed of sound.

"Why didn't you wake me up earlier!?" he shouted as he went into his closet, dragging out his clothes before stripping, not even caring Matthew was there in his haste.

"I gave you some beauty sleep!" the other exclaimed back "god knows you need it…"

Alfred didn't particularly care about the last comment as he put his socks and shoes on in a hurry and ran out of his bedroom, knocking Matthew to the side, which would probably make him smile later.

He ran down the stairs, almost falling several times as he tried to put on his jacket before reaching the bottom. Matthew followed behind, rather nonchalant considering if Alfred was late, he was late too. Alfred ran to the front door, not having time to make coffee, and found what he was looking for, a key rack with a set of car keys on the far right.

He grabbed them without thinking, as well as his house keys, and ran outside. He looked around desperately before turning to Matthew and shouting,

"Where's my car, Matthew?!"

"In the shed." The other said, pointing towards a fairly large shed which stood a few metres from the house. Alfred was happy to have gotten a straightforward answer out of the other for once as he went over to the shed and threw up the shed door, which was a metal sheet like thing. Inside was his car, a rather old yet stylish navy blue 1974 AMC Javelin AMX 401. He pressed the unlock button on the car keys and smirked just a little at the satisfying Beep-bop sound the car made as it unlocked. Alfred, much to his brother's enjoyment, was a fan of classic cars, this being one of his favourite models.

He rushed in and opened the driver's seat, slamming the door and bringing the engine to life before slamming the accelerate pedal and bringing the car into the outside light. Matthew got into the passenger seat with a grumble about how the other could have run him over.

Matthew hadn't even buckled himself in when Alfred put the pedal to the metal and drove off down the track like a crazy person.

Fifteen minutes, three almost-crashes and five screams from Matthew about calming down later, Alfred and Matthew finally appeared in the parking lot of their new place of work. As Matthew was trying to get his breathing back to normal, Alfred looked out at the building. It was fairly new, though it wasn't that large and most of the space around it, save the car park and a few other things, was left as it had always been, green fields with a few flowers popping up here and there, swaying gently in the breeze. It was peaceful, a good change of pace from the hectic environment that Alfred was used to working in.

He drove in and parked up nearby the front entrance and opened his door, stepping out and heaving a sigh before watching as his brother came out of the other side, still looking a bit dazzled as he combed his hair back into place from the mess it had become during his older brother's irresponsible driving.

"Come on Matthew, we're going to be late!" Alfred exclaimed as he started to walk towards the building's front entrance. Matthew gawked for a moment and then grumbled something about his brother being extraordinarily cruel before he followed behind the other into the building.

Alfred and Matthew rushed in through the revolving doors and were soon directed to a series of hallways where their office lay. They rushed through the corridors, the corners and straights never seeming to end as they tried to find where they would be working. While they were doing this, -and by 'they' I mean Alfred - Matthew took to the practice of looking down at the floor as well as up into the windows of other people's offices, looking for anyone that looked good. There were a few candidates, but no-one stellar.

While he was looking at the floor, he saw something which made him snicker slightly, seeing an opportunity to annoy his brother, who seemed to currently be ahead of him in their 'contest'.

"Hey, Alfie."

No response.

Matthew smirked. He liked this part.

"Hey, Alfie. Listen, hey. Hey, hey, listen, eh?"

Then there was a response, which came with the added seasoning that was an irritated tone.

"What."

"Hello."

A pause, then a growl and then quiet again.

Matthew was almost grinning now.

"Hey, Alfie~"

This continued to go on for some time until about the fourth time Matthew started up again. They were turning a corner as Matthew spoke.

"Hey, Alfie, listen to me, eh?"

Of course, by now, Alfred was very annoyed at Matthew and was very close to kicking him In the balls. As they turned the corner, he turned his head around to look at the other as he gave a rather loud shout of.

"What!?"

Suddenly, Alfred felt something bump into him from around the corner. Something soft. Very, very soft. And huge.

Alfred turned forward, Matthew looking out from behind as he saw what he had bumped into. In front of him, having just dropped a large amount of loose paper, was a woman. The woman had golden blond hair, medium-length with some sort of hair band at the top. The woman looked up at Alfred, after having bent down to collect the dropped records and Alfred first saw her face. It was a cute face, with a button nose and almost childish features as well as cyan eyes.

"Ah! I'm so sorry, sir!" the woman apologized, her voice exotic and warming "I didn't mean to knock into you, I should have been more careful!"

That knocked Alfred back from his daze. He now bent down too, helping the woman grab her files.

"Don't worry." He said "it was my fault for not being aware of you."

While he was bent down, Alfred saw more of the woman he had bumped into. She was wearing a black dress which reached just above her ankles, enough so Alfred could see the black tights underneath and the black business shoes she wore. As his eyes travelled up, he saw she was wearing a black blazer and white blouse which looked rather tight around her massive bre-

Before Alfred could shame himself by thinking of the word, the woman had all her documents and got up from the floor, Alfred following suit.

The woman seemed to me smiling now. It was a smile that could light the darkest room.

"Thank you sir, for helping a klutz like me." She said with genuine gratefulness.

Alfred felt himself blush brightly and covered his face with his arm and turned away as he spoke.

"N-no problem, Miss…?"

The woman paused before catching on to what Alfred was asking.

"Oh! It's Miss Yekaterina Braginskaya, though everyone just calls me Kat Braginski. Or just Kat, really." Kat paused before speaking again, this time in a questioning manner "um, sir, you don't have to tell me, but, what is your name?"

It took Alfred a few seconds to catch on, still blushing slightly, before he answered, rubbing the back of his neck as he forced himself to look straight into Kat's eyes.

"Oh! Yeah, my Name is Alfred f. Jones. But people tend to call me Alfr-"

"This is my dear older brother Alfie!" Matthew cut in before Alfred could finish "New Manager just in today, and I am his beloved – and available – bro-!"

"Oh my god, you're the new manager!?" Kat interrupted, seeming to have almost completely ignored Matthew "I am so sorry!" she apologized again, bowing her head repeatedly.

"W-whoa, hey!" Alfred said, waving his hands frantically "it's okay, it's my fault remember?"

Kat stopped bowing for a moment and looked up at Alfred again, who breathed a sigh of relief.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, positive."

There was a pause, then Kat smiled again, even more than before.

"That's great. Please, Mr Jones, do you mind if I repay for you helping me by buying you lunch today?" Alfred was going to refuse. He really was. Until Matthew burst in again.

"He'd love to!"

"That's great!" Kat exclaimed, staring to rush off again now as she shouted back to Alfred "see you later, Mr Jones Sir! Also, I like the Christmas socks, very stylish!"

Alfred paused, suddenly feeling very cold as he looked down at his feet to see he had put on the five-year old socks in his rush this morning. Alfred felt himself start to go into despair and would have continued to do so, had his brother not started laughing like a maniac, reviving him in flames.

"Idiot! Why did you tell her I wanted to go!? And why didn't you tell me about these!?" he pointed to the offending socks.

That seemed to kick Matthew off even more as he continued laughing as he spoke.

"I-I did tell you! Didn't you listen to me earlier? Haha!" he paused "Also, did you not see her!? Dude, her boobs are huge! I could practically hear them bouncing! And she asked you out on a date too, on the first meeting, that's progress and you really, really, really need to get some soon!"

Everything went quiet and Matthew started to take the lead, walking to a nearby door which had their names and positions on it. He looked back at Alfred and smirked.

"No need to thank me, brother! Just doing my part as the little one! Now come on, we're already late!" he then opened the door and walked inside, leaving Alfred out in the hall, confused, shocked and with a lunch-date.


	5. My Big Brother

**Sorry I have not responded for a while, hope you like this update and more will come soon. I am not dead yet!**

From that time until lunch, Alfred couldn't really linger on the situation that had occurred earlier as the work came in hard and fast. Advertisement concepts had to be approved, slogans had to be refined and personal had to have their complaints addressed. It was hectic as Alfred sat at his rather well-made desk, signing documents with one hand and stamping others with the other hand.

Eventually, when Alfred was all but spent, there was a knock on his door, which separated his part of the office from Matthew's part at the front. Alfred sighed, raising his head slowly as he answered.

"Yes?"

"It's lunch, numb-nuts!" came Matthew's voice through the door "time to get it on with that big-titted mistress of yours!"

Alfred blushed at the reminder of Kat's chest size, but shook his head from side to side to get the image out of his head. He got up and walked towards the door, his embarrassment and irritation at his brother's comment reviving him slightly as he opened the door to Matthew standing there, looking as nonchalant as normal.

"She is not my mistress." Alfred said sternly to the other, "She's just a work colleague who very politely invited me to lunch!"

"Yeah, that's right, and you're not a virgin." Matthew responded sarcastically.

"What's that got to mean?" Alfred questioned, not really getting it. He'd never dated, despite having many opportunities to in the past.

"It means." Matthew said, flicking Alfred's forehead before turning around towards the door that lead to the hallway "that she digs you, poser."

Alfred put a hand on his forehead where the other had flicked, too concerned of that and too confused by his brother's words to make out the slight tone of irritation in the other's voice.

"Come on!" the other called, already at the door which lead to the hallway. Alfred sighed, deciding to give up comprehending what his brother had tried to explain to him, following the other as they both walked out of their office and down the hallway, following the small stream of workers who were heading for the canteen.

The canteen was a fairly large place, about the size of a warehouse, and split into two parts. The west wing was where the food was kept, including a rather sparse salad bar, sandwich bar and a small chain of counters where hot food and desserts could be ordered and collected. On the east side were a bunch of fairly large circular tables, where people were sat, talking in a variety of different languages, from English to German to Russian. The general ambience of the room was crowded with the sound of speaking, cooking and eating and as a consequence was fairly lively, more like a high-school canteen than an international advertising company's cafeteria.

"Mr Jones sir!" said a voice, just barely heard over the almost over-bearing noise around them. It was Kat, waiting near a table where a few other people were sitting as well. Alfred looked over, unsure of what expression to use as Kat waved enthusiastically at him to come over. Alfred felt himself poked on the back and looked back to see his brother standing behind him.

"Come on, poser. You can't keep a good lady waiting, eh?"

Alfred still stood in the same place though, feet frozen to the floor. Despite him being a serious businessman, Alfred was still human and in this environment so different from the cities he was used to working in, he felt strangely nervous. His expression must have showed that in some capacity, because Matthew smirked and spoke again.

"I always wonder who of us the big brother here is."

Suddenly, Alfred felt himself pushed by his brother and finally moved from his spot on the floor, almost falling to the ground before he turned and regained his balance and looked back to find that Matthew could no longer be seen, most likely having drifted into one of the crowds that surrounded the area. Alfred grumbled and found that his irritation towards his brother's actions helped him regain his composure as he looked towards Kat and walked over, a dignified expression on his face.

"Hello Miss Braginski, it is nice to meet you again…" he said.

"It is nice to meet you again too, Mr Jones sir. Oh and you don't need to call me 'Miss Braginski', just call me 'Kat', everyone else does!" Kat smiled before seemingly realizing something and shrinking down again to look vulnerable "unless… you can't do that because of your position?"

Normally, Alfred never really reacted to other's body language. He knew that in his old office, some had said behind his back he was a cruel man because he would always tell you what was on his mind and never beat around the bush, causing many people stress. However, seeing Kat looking so vulnerable, like Alfred could turn her to dust with a single strong look, Alfred couldn't help stuttering his response, his dignified face slipping slightly into a worrisome one.

"N-no, it's no problem… Kat."

Kat perked up again at that and smiled her sweet smile again.

"Yay! Thank you Mr Jones sir!" she chirped.

She then sat down on her seat and pointed to the empty one next to her, smiling at Alfred as she spoke.

"Come and sit down Mr Jones, I would like to introduce some of my friends to you!"

It was only now that Alfred's field of view widened to include the other people who sat on the same table as Kat. There were four people on the table in all besides Alfred and Kat.

Three seats were taken up by three men who sat next to each other, talking amongst themselves while Alfred and Kat had talked. One of them, who sat in the middle, had mid-length brown hair and ocean blue eyes. He wore a black suite, much like Alfred's own with a white undercoat. The one to his right was about the same height as the other with slightly lighter coloured hair and green eyes. He wore glasses and gave off a more studious atmosphere than the other two men he sat with. He wore a dark grey suit with a formal tie. Finally Alfred observed the third man, sitting to the left of the man in the middle. He was much shorter than the other two and had almost the same colour hair as the man in the middle, though slightly lighter, as well as the same colour eyes. He seemed to be the youngest as well and gave off a sense of sweet nativity the other two did not process. He wore a light grey suit which did nothing to hide his small and boyish figure.

"Oh boys~" Kat said, waving to the three who shot their heads to look at her, their conversation breaking mid-flow as they looked at Kat with a strange sort of… apprehension?

Kat continued on though, seemingly oblivious to the other's reactions.

"Why don't you introduce yourself to our new guest, yes?"

The three men turned their heads to Alfred almost in synch. They then looked at each other and started to introduce themselves. First the man in the middle;

"Uh… hello, my name is Toris Laurinaitis from the advertisement concept department, it is nice to meet you." The other sounded quite shy but his voice was soothing and gentle.

Then the one sitting to his left started up, without missing a beat in-between.

"And I'm Eduard von Bock from the IT department, it is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance, sir." He spoke with a more refined tone than the other, only slightly nervous at meeting Alfred.

Finally, the third one started;

"H-hi! My name's Ravis Galante from the marketing department! G-good to s-see you!" His tone even sounded more innocent than the other two and more fervent as well, as if he couldn't think about his words before he said them.

"Thank you~" Kat said and the three seemed to all breathe a sigh of relief before going back to their conversation again.

Kat turned to Alfred and smiled.

"They're friends of my big brother. They're very kind, you just have to get to know them."

"Yes… I can see that." Alfred said in response, giving a nervous half-smile. He couldn't help but feel an almost oppressive atmosphere around the three, like something was holding them down in their seats besides their own will.

"Next," Kat said, moving on to the other occupant of the table- besides the three men "I would like to introduce you to my sister!"

She pointed at a female with long hair who sat on a chair, seemingly staring into space, her seat equally away from the group of men and Kat, so that she seemed to be the most isolated on the table. She had long hair, past her shoulders and almost reaching the small of her back. She had a pretty face, almost like a doll. She wore a white blouse and black blazer, much like her sister, though it looked somewhat more clunky on her.

"Hello." Alfred said, waving his hand at the other.

There was no response.

Alfred started to feel awkward when Kat stepped in, pouting slightly as she talked to her sister.

"Nat. Don't be so rude to our guest."

There was another pause and when it looked like the girl would just keep ignoring Alfred, she turned her head, very slowly and creepily, like you see in those horror films when someone is about to turn their head all the way around. Her eyes were suddenly scary, looking as if they could stare right into Alfred's soul.

"You are not my brother, please do not bother me…" Her words were laced with acidity so potent, Alfred made a mental note that if ever he should have to deal with the female he would say he was ill and have his brother take his place. Somewhere in the distance, Matthew felt a chill run down his spine, like someone was digging his grave.

With the introductions finished, Alfred turned to Kat, who smiled at him.

"The others might not say it, but they are very glad to meet you Mr Jones, we and my brother always like new guests."

"It is no problem Kat. By the way, where is this brother you keep referring to?"

"Oh, you mean Big Brother Ivan? Well, he said he'd be her-"

Suddenly, the door to the canteen was flung open and slammed against the wall, making a sound that made everyone turn their heads towards it, cutting off all noise in the room. A hulking body slunk in, the build completely disagreeing with the slow cat-like movements the owner used. The man wore a heavy black jacket with a white shirt and black hard-wearing trousers. One of the weirdest things the man wore, which stood out amongst the rest of his clothing, was a cream scarf which looked to be very old. The man's hair was wispy blond and his eyes a very dark shade of grey with a slight tint of a strange colour mixed in, almost like they were purple.

The most noticeable thing about the man though was his aura. Now, Alfred isn't the type of man to believe in such silly things as auras and signs from another realm, but as the man walked in, Alfred felt like a sack of bricks had been placed on his back, weighing him down. It seemed the whole room also felt it as the three men on Alfred's table started trembling in unison and other people started backing away from the man as he came over to their table. It was like there was a no-go zone of at least ten feet around the man.

Alfred fought to stay where he was sitting, wondering why Kat was not crying at the aura the man presented. The man drew closer, closer, closer and the aura grew darker, heavier and more oppressing. Eventually, the man was at the table and standing almost in front of Alfred, looking down on him with a look that could easily vaporize a kitten.

He slowly started speaking, the English syllables coming out heavily Russian-accented.

"Who are you then, ah?"

Alfred tried to say something, but found his voice was stuck and he couldn't speak.

Luckily, Kat came to his rescue, albeit in the strangest way possible.

"Brother Ivan! It is nice to see you!" Kat got up from where she was sitting and hugged her brother tightly, the latter of whom smiled slightly.

"Hello Kat, it is nice to see you. And who is this?" he asked again, looking at Alfred again.

"Oh! Right! Brother, this is Mr Alfred Jones, a new manager who just came in today from the American Branch. I bumped into him this morning and caused him trouble, so I invited him to lunch to make up for it. He is a very nice man."

There was a deathly silence, Ivan looked at Alfred and before Alfred could do anything, the other started to come towards him with snake-like reflexes. Alfred thought he was going to be killed right then and there. He didn't want to die, not with his brother watching and most likely taping the event.

Suddenly, Alfred felt arms around him, though he didn't know what had happened because he had closed his eyes. He slowly opened one eye and then the other, to see the Russian man smiling brightly as he bear hugged him.

"Ah, hello!" the other exclaimed loudly as he continued to hug Alfred "So sorry I didn't know who you were, sir."

Before Alfred could say anything, he was dropped and he fell back onto his seat which he had been lifted from. Ivan continued however.

"My name is Ivan Braginski, I work in HR and ensure our employees have a good time here."

Alfred was so shocked at the other's words he swore his mouth had fallen open. This man was in HR?! Ivan continued to talk however.

"I am sorry if my dear sister had troubled you, Alfred, but it is good to see a new faces on our table of friends, da?"

Alfred felt himself nodding his head and Ivan smiled again, sitting down on the seat between Alfred and the three men, who all smiled nervously at the man.

Slowly, the environment around them returned to normal, though everyone seemed to be quieter now and more cautious of Ivan, keeping their heads firmly turned away from the imposing man. Ivan didn't seem to notice however, or if he did he didn't care, and started a conversation.

To Alfred, this would be one of the most surreal experiences he would ever face and one of the most foreboding.


	6. Of How I Came To be

The car drove slowly back into the drive at 6pm that night, much slower than the speed at which it had left it that morning. Matthew, although he didn't show it, seemed to be thankful for that as he exited the car, with Alfred following shortly behind. It had been a quiet drive home from the office, which wasn't that strange really. Matthew and Alfred were brothers, but it was clear to see their personalities were completely at odds, with Alfred's serious and business-like persona and Matthew free-rolling and flirty one. As such, they normally didn't have much to talk about and when they did talk, it normally came in the way of argument about one thing or another.

Matthew, though, had expected it to be different tonight. After all, his older virgin brother Alfie had finally gotten onto the first rung on the ladder of love, namely the first date. Of course, Alfie would have denied it with all he could, but Matthew knew a budding relationship when he saw one. Kat clearly had thing for Alfie and Alfie, despite everything, didn't seem to dislike her. It was promising and just thinking of the possibilities made Matthew eyes almost brim with tears of happiness.

"What are you thinking, Matthew?" Alfred questioned his brother, his eyebrows knitted together in curious suspicion behind his glasses. Matthew noticed then that his eyes were wet and he had almost actually cried. Matthew laughed at the revelation and suddenly put his arm around Alfred's shoulder, bringing his older and slightly taller brother close to his side.

"I'm just so proud, that my little virgin Alfie is finally on his way to becoming a man."

Alfred blushed instinctively at the contact and words his brother used and tried to push him away, growling back his response.

"Where do you get off talking about manhood? If I remember right, it isn't very mature to go out with three girls, all at the same time in high-school!"

Matthew made a face like he was trying to remember what his brother was talking about and then grinned, pointing a finger up in the air as if there was a thought cloud above his head.

"Oh yeah… That was really cool though, three hot ladies and one irresistible me! And face it, big brother, I '_grew up'_ way before you did~"

Matthew was still holding onto Alfred at this point, not seemingly even bothered by the other's struggling. He decided he wanted to tease him even more, seeing the light dusting of a blush on his brother's face and brought his face close to Alfred's, within kissing distance. It was one of the oldest ploys in the book, and a rather effective one.

"Hey, how about I teach you teach you one of the best things about being a M.A.N?"

He whispered in his best husky voice, drawing out every last syllable on the last word. Matthew smiled and noticed the blush on his brother's face darkened considerably before he felt something else… extreme pain.

Alfred pushed Matthew back, having kicked him rather squarely in the crotch. He didn't like doing this to his brother (ok, maybe a little), but this time his brother had gone a bit further than necessary. Matthew, no longer able to grip Alfred because of the burning pain down south, came off without a fight and fell down, curling into the fetal position in the dirt, hissing various curses in French and English. Alfred didn't have much time to think and, looking around quickly, took off at a run to the forest, the sounds of Matthew's shouts following him as he tried not to trip on tree roots or get his toe caught on the various branches.

He'd been running for what seem like an hour, though in reality it had only been five minutes, before he stopped, bending over and putting his hands on his knees as he caught his breath back. He sighed. That had been stupid, he shouldn't have reacted to such childish teasing in such a way. When he had caught his breath, he looked up from the ground and found he was in the clearing where he had been yesterday with

"How're doing?"

Arthur.

Alfred, shocked by the sudden noise behind him, moved forward, falling down to the ground and then rapidly turning around to see Arthur standing there, smiling.

"Did I catch you off guard again? You really need to work on your reaction time, Alfie~"

"W-wha-"Alfred stuttered both because of outrage at the comment and the adrenaline still running through his system due to the surprise.

"Hmm? Yes?" Arthur questioned, leaning in comically and moving his head so his right ear was closer to Alfred "what is it?"

"Wh-what are you… doing here?" Alfred finished, breathing slow and deep to regain his senses.

"Hmm?" Arthur hummed, drawing back and looking down at Alfred with look you would give someone when you asked them what colour the sun was and they said it was blue. "Is twenty years such a long time?" he asked, not giving Alfred a chance to answer before continuing. "I live here, remember?"

"You live… in the forest?" Alfred asked, in slight disbelief.

"Yeah, and guess what. I'm the king of this place too." Arthur said, grinning at the cute face Alfred made when he didn't understand.

_The king? _Alfred thought _that's impossible…_

Flying Bunny Forest, as it had been named by the first inhabitants of Alfred's home, was quite a large forest, stretching for many miles in all directions, only really split by some small old roads built in ancient times and the house that had been built in its midst some two-hundred years ago. An area so huge and so filled with wildlife, it was impossible to have one person as its king.

"How can you be the king?" he asked Arthur, his mind driven away from the previous situation in a need to figure out this puzzle.

"Quite easily, actually" Arthur responded, happy the other was taking an interest in his life. He sat down on the ground, cross-legged as he spoke in a teacher-like tone, his tails idly moving around. "You see, this forest is special. This forest is one of the last in the world to be a home for mythical creatures, big and small. Back when humanity was young and more accepting to us, there were places like this all around the world, where creatures of every plane of existence could live in harmony with each other and in some cases, the humans. Each place, whether it be a forest or a mountain range, had a system by which the most powerful and wise of these creatures would act as a king of that land."

By now Alfred was sitting up, listening to the other with an odd nostalgic sense of wonder. Arthur continued, seeming to be into the flow of his tale now, his eyes closed as he continued to speak.

"For many years, we mythical beings wondered whom of our kinds could be most suited to being rulers who were impartial, wise and very powerful.

"Eventually, one beast made itself stand out among the others. The Kitsune. Japanese in origin and one of the most powerful creatures in the mythical world. My ancestors took the mantles of kings and queens of their kingdoms, their descendants taking over when they retired and so on and so forth. For many, many years, this was the way of things, the kitsunes, with their almost boundless wisdom and power, kept the law of the land and peace with the humans. We prospered. Then, it fell apart.

"Like most kingdoms and dynasties, we found that just because you were a Kitsune, did not mean you were fit to rule with the people's best interest at heart. Some of us were greedy, other's cruel. War broke out between the kingdoms and revolts sprang up, some oppressed creatures killing their Kitsune leaders and taking the mantle for themselves. At the same time, humanity became scared of our collective power and, fearing for their lives, started to destroy our habitats and our kind, locked up in cages or killed us for our bodies. In the time, many of my kind fled, not wishing to die by either side. Some of us left behind out heritage and bred with the humans, leading to hybrids and loss of the pure bloodline. Others were killed, either by their own or by the humans. Many territories were destroyed and many creatures, having no home to return to, faded into obscurity and legend."

Arthur paused for a long time after that. It seemed to be a difficult subject to talk about, which wasn't surprising. Alfred felt almost like comforting the other, but held back, letting the other continue on.

"My family have ruled this forest for many years, stretching back to when the first Kitsunes ruled. My mother was alive at the time of these wars with my father. She was with child back then. The war came to us as well and my father had to kill many a friend to keep my mother safe. The humans tired as well and they were also slaughtered by the inhabitants of this forest, who wanted nothing more than to live in peace. By the end of it, we had lost many friends and family. My father was a broken man and ran away shortly after, leaving my mother here with her new child… me."

Arthur stopped then. He looked up to Alfred, smiling, though Alfred could see he was shivering slightly.

"Arth-"Alfred started before he was stopped by a long and drawn out growling noise. He looked around quickly, thinking it was a wolf of something before he heard it again and looked at Arthur, who seemed to be blushing slightly as he covered his stomach.

"Are you…"

"Sorry, I couldn't forage enough to eat today and I was busy looking after some baby griffins and I kinda"

Arthur suddenly felt himself being poked with something and looked up to see Alfred standing up and looking down at him, in his hands a bar of some sort.

"Here." He said, his tone stern while he looked to the right.

Arthur didn't move for a short while, transfixed by the strange wrapped bar the other held in his out-stretched hand. It was colourfully-wrapped, with the words 'Super Healthy Nut Bar' written on it in bold lettering.

Arthur smiled, a warmer smile this time and looked up at Alfred again.

"Thank you, but… I'm allergic to nuts."

Alfred twitched, damn, why hadn't he thought of that. He suddenly started freaking out, fiddling around as he blushed.

"S-sorry, I didn't think you were."

Arthur stood up then as well, grinning now like he had done before.

"I should think so!" he said, his tone hard for a moment before he paused and then laughed "because I was lying!"

Alfred, hearing the words, looked Arthur straight in the eyes, his glasses doing little to hide the look of shock and confusion on his face. Arthur chuckled, pausing before moving in on a whim and giving Alfred a chaste kiss on the lips.

"You look so cute when you're shocked, you know?" he said as he drew back. Alfred stayed frozen in his position for a few seconds after and Arthur wondered if something was wrong before bar was suddenly pushed towards his bare chest, pushing it into Arthur's hands as Alfred looked sternly away.

"Eat this…" he murmured and then walked to the edge of the clearing, in the direction of his house. Arthur thought he'd gone too far and was about to apologize when Alfred spoke again.

"I'll come… and give you food, okay?"

That seemed to stop Arthur and Alfred walked out without another word, leaving Arthur there, with a nut bar in his hands, a blush on his cheeks and a smile on his lips. Yep, that was his husband, all right. Meanwhile, in Alfred's view, he felt like something was changing. Something was coming back, something he had forgotten long ago. As he walked back, now short of a nut bar he had gotten from the canteen, he despite everything, felt himself smile. Then grin. Then laugh.

**Hey guys, back again with another chapter. Sorry about infrequent updates, I've been getting busy as of late. But, I hope you like this chapter of exposition dump and some fluff and I'll see you next time. Oh, how OOC my chars are~**


	7. A Good Friend

When Alfred returned home that night, Matthew was outside, waiting for him by the front door, still nursing his hurt pride. Of course, he'd been angry, but Alfred strangely didn't care. In fact, he even had to pretend he was being serious as he absent-mindidly accepted what his brother said without rebuttal. Matthew would have noticed this, in most any other situation, but, at the time, he was still focused on getting out his annoyance. Alfred ended up promising his brother he would do all the house-work for the next week for what he'd done.

After that, the argument seemed to peter out and the two entered the cottage again, Alfred cooking before they both went to bed with nay a word between them.

Alfred slept well that night, calm and relaxed for a reason he couldn't define, nor did he try to. He just fell asleep, the image of Arthur prevalent in his mind as he rested.

The next day, Alfred work up at the right time this time, his eyes slowly looking up at the ceiling as he rubbed his head and looked over at the electric clock.

6:56.

He actually beat his alarm clock, which was extremely rare as normally Alfred needed the clock's shrill alarm to even think of waking up, let alone getting up. He decided it must have been because he had slept well the night before and got out of bed, dressing at his own pace this time, instead of hurrying like last time. The criminal Christmas socks now stayed firmly in their drawer, never again to be worn and hiding the letter again.

He walked out of his room in his business attire, straightening everything out before walking downstairs to find that even his brother hadn't stirred, a fact made evident by the lack of a certain dear brother sitting in front of the tv, watching whatever children's program was on at the time. Alfred knew that wouldn't last for long though and so walked into the kitchen to make the other breakfast, knowing he'd probably still be annoyed from the night before.

As he set about, making a breakfast of scrambled eggs and French toast, he couldn't help but remember what had happened the night before. Really, he knew that he should just forget about it and move on, but found his body thinking differently as if made enough for three portions instead of two. He sighed when he was done, wondering what the hell he was thinking as he plated the three portions, taking one of the plates and quietly walking out the front door. He knew he didn't have enough time to go to the clearing to place the food there, so moved to the edge of the forest and hid the plate behind a bush. He then rushed back inside and closed the door. It was just in time as well, as Matthew came down the stairs in his clothes, his eyes still blurry from sleep.

"Food…" he stated dully.

Alfred may have been a heavy sleeper, but Matthew was no better when it came to getting up in the mornings. Alfred revelled in the sight and went to get Matthew's portion, having to fight a cheeky smile as he walked. After Matthew and Alfred had eaten, Matthew watching a new episode of some dumb series with a yellow dog who could stretch to unreal proportions and Alfred reading some paper work which needed to be handed in, they got in the car and drove off to work.

The day continued normally from there, with both of them chipping away at their work-loads. It wasn't until about 12am, just before lunch hour, when things started to change up slightly. Matthew was working in the first room of their office, filing some contacts when he heard the door being knocked. It was a gentle, quiet knock, so Matthew knew instantly that it was a woman. He smiled then, he had an inkling as to who that woman was. Despite everything that had happened the night before, Matthew still wanted his brother and Kat to hook up, if only for the pleasure of having Alfred being obligated to thank him later when he had two kids and was happily married. He got up, straightening his attire before opening the door. He'd been right as Kat was on the other side of the door, looking slightly embarrassed and awkward just standing in the hallway.

"Ah, hello Kat." Matthew said, putting on a professional smile with no flirtation at all, which was almost unheard of. "What is that you are wishing for today?"

Kat stayed quiet, her mouth open to speak, but drawing back into herself with a blush.

Matthew smiled, man, his brother was lucky, getting a cute babe like Kat. Next, she'd turn out to be a dominatrix, just to frost the cake.

"Or should I say whom?" he continued, slowly.

Kat jerked and blushed again, almost looking like a child being found out about having stolen a cookie from the jar. Eventually, she seemed to muster up enough courage to speak.

"Is Mr. Jones in?"

Matthew didn't waste any time. He turned around on his heel and practically ran to Alfred's door, opening it without knocking and almost shouting in.

Alfred had been reading some document about how they could make their outgoings more efficient when the door was suddenly swung open to show his brother in te frame with an ecstatic expression on his face, which never meant something good was about to happen to Alfred.

"Alfie!~" he called, his cheery voice making Alfred go even more on edge.

"What is it?" Alfred asked, his eyebrows knitting in suspicion.

"Look who's here." Matthew stated, then making a large sweeping movement as he moved out of the door frame to reveal Kat still standing in the hall.

Alfred's expression went to confusion and slight shock. What was Kat doing here? She didn't have an appointment, did she?

"H-hello, Mr Jones s-sir…" she stuttered, shyly waving, which Alfred almost returned before noticing that it would make him look stupid. He decided instead to stand up, looking straight into Kat's eyes as he spoke.

"Hey… Kat…"

Matthew, standing off to the side, almost couldn't hold in his laughter. It was like a scene from an anime. Boy meets girl in a random accident, girl falls in love with boy but boy is oblivious and eventually they understand each other and they confess, then kiss then do the dirty then have ten children and the credits roll. He was almost drooling thinking about it. Meanwhile, the conversation continued at a snail's pace.

"So…" Alfred said slowly "do you have some business here?"

Kat's eyes widened, like she had just remembered something and then she spoke again.

"Y-yes… I was just w-wondering if you maybe would like to… like to… go to lunch with me?"

There was a pause, then a longer one, then silence. Matthew was almost pissing himself in the corner before Alfred responded.

"Okay."

Kat seemed to be shocked at first at the briefness of the reply, then smiled and giggled happily.

"Okay then, I'll meet you at the lunch hall" she said as she walked off, bouncing chest and all.

Matthew gave up trying at that point and burst into almost hysterical laughter. Alfred walked to his door and glared at his younger brother who was currently leaning his whole body against the wall and almost crying.

"What are you laughing about?" he asked.

"Hah hah… d-don't w-worry, heh heh."

Matthew eventually managed to calm himself down, wiping away the tears in his eyes as Alfred looked at him with a mix of suspicion and confusion. He'd accepted Kat's gesture because he thought it was the best course of action. Kat was a sweet woman and one of the first friends that Alfred had made in the building, even if her family were slightly odd. It was no worse than his, he added bitterly in his head, looking pointedly at his brother.

Matthew noticed his brother's look but decided to ignore it, smiling as he walked towards the door that lead into the hallway. He seemed to have completely forgotten about what had happened the night before as he spoke in an almost sing-song voice.

"Come on then, Alfie~ it is lunch-hour, is it not?"

With that he walked out, leaving Alfred to sigh and massage his temple. He really didn't understand his brother sometimes. It was just a meet-up between friends, after all.

Oh, how wrong he was.


	8. Ivan and Canteens

As soon as Alfred walked into the canteen, he felt as if he was being stared at. He looked around, but saw no-one was even looking in his direction, though some seemed to be whispering amongst themselves. He shrugged lightly, walking off to find where Kat was sitting. Matthew had long since disappeared somewhere and Alfred found he didn't want to look for him, still confused about his actions earlier on.

It didn't take long to find Kat, as she was waving over to Alfred and had a very… _noticeable _appearance. Kat smiled when she saw Alfred. The table was occupied by the same people who had sat there the last time. The three men were whispering to one another again, eyes darting around and the blond haired female was still sitting as far away from Kat and the others as possible. This time, though, another man was sitting at the table, his seat looking like a tiny stool compared to his hulking figure. It didn't take Alfred too long to figure out who the man was. Ivan, the man who was Kat's supposed brother.

Alfred couldn't help but feel slightly nervous as he walked up to the table and took the only available seat, between Kat and Ivan.

"Thank you so much for coming, Mr Jones Sir." Kat said happily as Alfred took a seat, seemingly oblivious as to how slowly he did so. Before Alfred could reply with a thank you for the invitation, Ivan spoke, his heavily accented voice overpowering the scene in almost an instant, leaving Alfred little time to breathe, let alone speak.

"Yes, it is good to have you sitting with us again, my friend. So tell me, how are you adapting to managing here?"

Alfred didn't speak for a moment, feeling like he shouldn't. It took him a few seconds to realize that Ivan was waiting for his reply.

"It's going fine, I suppose." Alfred answered carefully, observing Ivan's fixed smile with caution. He felt like one of those cops in an old action movie who had the unenviable task of de-activating a time-bomb without any help and wearing boxing gloves. The only difference was, this time-bomb was less metal and TNT and more muscle and skin.

"There is a lot of work I would think, da? How do you cope with that?"

At this point, Alfred was starting to get less nervous and more curious. The last time Ivan and him had met, the day before, Ivan hadn't spoken nearly so much or asked as many questions as he did now.

"The work isn't that difficult really, there's just a lot of it to do. I guess it's just something you got to get used to and soldier on with."

Ivan nodded his head, which made Alfred think he had at least given a suitable answer, though as to why a suitable answer had to be given, he didn't know. Ivan looked like he was about to ask another question, when Kat interjected.

"How about we all go and get our food now?" she said, her tone never changing from its shy-cheeriness.

Ivan turned to his sister and for a moment, Alfred swore he was going to swallow her whole, before Ivan laughed slightly and responded.

"Yes, we will go and get something to eat, da?"

For a while after that, things seemed to return to a relative normality. Everyone was eating and no-one spoke, leading the group through a peaceful silence. That was, until Ivan started speaking again.

"So, Mr Jones… how good are you in battle?"

Alfred almost chocked on his meatballs.

"What!? What do you mean!?" Alfred had never heard a question like that before from anyone, let alone some man he had only met a day ago. Ivan kept smiling though, as if he had said nothing strange at all. In fact, he even seemed to be chuckling lightly as he spoke again.

"Sorry, my English is not very good. How easily can you crush a man's skull, is that easier to understand?"

Alfred didn't even respond this time, frozen in shock. Ivan continued on, however, seeming not to notice.

"Mr. Jones, you must know that every man must be strong enough to look after what is their own, correct? Now, I know some people where you come from may think physical strength is barbaric, but for people in my homeland, it is a valuable resource. For that reason, I wish to know how strong you are…"

Out of Alfred's sight, the three men at the table started quivering and one even seemed to be praying. Natalia was quiet, her gaze transfixed on Ivan with what was probably meant to be an innocent smile on her face, though it came out as slightly demented. Kat just sat there, hands in her lap as she watched Ivan and Alfred – seemingly not worried at all by the negative turn of events. None of them moved from where they were seated.

People from other tables, however, started to move away, evacuating the area as quickly as humanly possible after hearing what Ivan said. Alfred could faintly hear some of them mumbling phrases like 'Poor guy' and 'I bet you five quid that Ivan tears him apart'.

Soon, a rather considerable area had cleared around them as word had gotten around, and a border in the shape of a ring was formed by the bodies of the people who had fled the battle zone.

Alfred could see the situation spiralling out of control right before his eyes. Ivan didn't seem to have noticed the other people moving away from the area, his gaze directed straight at Alfred as he stood from his chair. It seemed like Ivan's eyes were tearing into his soul, his aura almost physically crushing Alfred. Of course, Alfred did not wish to fight, - both because he was not a very good fighter and he did not wish to hurt Kat's brother – and so he stood slowly, arms raised in a sign of surrender. Ivan must have thought he was rising to his challenge – or maybe he didn't – and wasted no time in moving his right hand, now curled into a fist, forward. The ensuing blow hit Alfred like a ton of bricks and he was sure he had been lifted off the ground slightly as he stumbled back, reversing into another table.

"Alfred!"

In his agony caused by the punch to his chest, Alfred could barely recognize his younger brother's voice, shouting across the room. He must have noticed something bad was happening and now he was at the edge of the crowd, trying to fight his way through the people who were trying to hold him back, telling him it was too dangerous to intervene. Alfred tried to respond to his brother but found as he breathed in to talk, he felt an incredible pain in his chest, like his ribs had been broken. No words came out.

Ivan walked away from the table - leaving the still sitting occupants behind -, going up to Alfred.

"Does it hurt, Mr. Jones?" he asked, his voice sounding oddly genuine despite the circumstances.

Alfred didn't respond. He couldn't respond, not in the condition he was in.

It seemed he didn't need to though, as a scream of pain pierced the otherwise silent room and Alfred looked behind Ivan's frame to see Matthew running towards them, the man he had kicked in the crotch to get through lying on the floor.

"Get off him, you Ruski bastard!" he shouted, before jumping onto Ivan's back, trying to wrap his arm around his neck and cut off his air supply.

Ivan barely even seemed to notice as he swung himself to Alfred's right and flung Matthew off, leaving the other to soar through the air before falling heavily on the floor some feet away. Alfred tried to shout at his brother to get away and let him handle this, but the words still didn't come out. And Ivan wasn't done yet. He turned to Matthew, a smile still fixed onto his face as he walked up to him, speaking in a sing-song voice.

"So, you wish to take your brother's place, da?"

Matthew looked positively terrified, though he tried to hide it under bravado.

"Just try and punch me, poser! I'll show you what someone from Canada can do!"

Ivan paused for a moment, then laughed, loudly and deeply. Unsurprisingly, it sent a chill down everyone's spines.

"A brave man. A stupid man." He said, moving closer to Matthew – who was now scrambling onto his feet.

Ivan was getting closer to Matthew now and all Alfred could do was stand there, the pain preventing him from moving as the terrible scene unfolded before him. Matthew stood, frozen in place with fear, his arms raised into a boxing stance, though the form was poor and his whole body was shaking.

"You want me to try and punch you, yes?" Ivan asked, not expecting an answer "well, let me try then."

Ivan drew up his right fist, about to attack again. Time seemed to go into slow motion as the crowd held its breath. The fist flew down, like a rocket plummeting to Earth. The people at Ivan's table still sat, watching this as if it were normal.

Matthew closed his eyes, not wishing to see the Russian's fist make contact with his face. He'd done it now, pushed his luck one too many times.

A millisecond passed.

The half a second.

Then a whole second.

Matthew opened his eyes, wondering where the fist had gone when he suddenly saw something that amazed him. Alfred was there, standing between Ivan and Matthew. He was holding Ivan's right wrist, stopping his punch halfway. Maybe his luck would hold out after all.

Alfred grunted loudly as he held Ivan's right wrist with his right hand. His ribs were still painful, but now his system was filling with adrenaline and a will to protect his family. Ivan's expression finally broke from his calm smile, a twinge of a frown dancing across his lips. Alfred didn't waste time. He pulled Ivan's wrist, moving it from Alfred's left to his right, making Ivan twist around. Then, with Ivan now facing the other way, his arms tangled together, Alfred raised his right leg and kicked Ivan in the small of the back, letting go of his wrist and sending Ivan hurtling forward into the table where Kat and the other's still sat. Without his arms to balance, he toppled on top of it, causing his face to plummet down into Alfred's unfinished bowl of meatballs and spaghetti.

Laughter exploded from the crowd as Ivan raised his head, now with tomato sauce smeared onto it. Alfred stayed silent, waiting for Ivan's next move. He may have not been a good fighter, but having a man like Francis as his father had made him learn a few things about self-defence.

Matthew stood behind him, still scared but ultimately more afraid for his older sibling then himself.

Ivan turned back around, his head whipping to the side like a rattle-snake. His smile had turned into a flat-line as he glared daggers at Alfred.

"It seems you are fighting back… good…family seems to be important to you."

Alfred didn't respond, partially because of the pain and partly because he felt he didn't need to.

Ivan didn't say anything more, nodding his head before he started moving forward. At first it was slow, like the prowling of a beast, then it increased slowly. It increased until Ivan was suddenly running at Alfred full pelt, looking more akin to a train then a man. Alfred stood his ground, unable to move due to his ribs. Ivan had his fist raised and was ready to place the finishing move on Alfred. Alfred seemed strangely calm in this situation, taking a somewhat deep breath, -or at least as much as his injury allowed. He closed his eyes, moved forward and crouched low, punching forward. For a moment, it seemed like nothing had happened. The room was completely silent.

Alfred opened his eyes to see Ivan there, his face contorted in pain. He then saw Ivan's legs give out from underneath him, leading him to collapse on the floor in a heap.

There was silence for another moment.

Then cheers.

Alfred raised from his crouched position, completely shocked as to the turn of events. He could just barely hear Matthew behind him, cheering loudest of all.

"You did it Alfie!" he screamed in relief.

Alfred smiled, though it was mostly forced. Yes, he had done it. But what exactly had he done? He turned to Matthew, not speaking as he just stood there in dumb shock. There were so many questions flying around his head. The pain in his ribs wasn't helping. It felt like they were broken, though he doubted it was that serious.

He probably shouldn't have turned away.

The cheers of the crowd suddenly started to die as there was grunting from the floor. Ivan rose slowly but he rose. Eventually he was standing again, this time behind Alfred. His face was angry, truly angry. Then he smiled. He grabbed Alfred around his chest and pulled him up, giving him a bear hug as he happily said.

"Welcome to the family, brother."

That was all Alfred heard, because as soon as he heard that, the pain finally overcame him and he fainted, right there in Ivan's arms.


	9. The Worst Way to Meet the Family

It had been two weeks since the fight in the canteen with Ivan. Surprisingly, not much had changed since then. After Alfred had passed out, he'd been carried to the on-sight medical office by Ivan and woke up to the message that his ribs hadn't been broken, just bruised. The nurse said they'd take about three to six weeks to heal and that Alfred shouldn't do anything too vigorous until then. The agonizing pain in Alfred's ribs started to die down, mostly due to the aid of pain-killers. For about a week after the incident, Alfred expected there to be a report about the fight. But nothing came. All the witnesses had been silenced and the CCTV footage of the canteen that day had all been mysteriously deleted. Alfred didn't exactly know why, but he guessed it was due, in no small part, to Ivan. So, even if Alfred had wanted to fire Ivan, which had crossed his mind, he had no evidence about what had occurred, except his injury. And, somehow, he doubted that even if he had tried to make a case to his higher-ups about the fight, they wouldn't have done anything. Ivan was just that threatening.

That was another thing too. Despite what had happened that day, Alfred still sat at Kat and Ivan's table every single lunch-time which left the cause of the fight unexplained. Ivan treated him like a blood brother, joking with him and telling him various tales of his exploits in his homeland. Kat seemed to be much more relaxed as well, as if the fight had caused a weight to fall off her shoulders. Even the other people at the table were beginning to talk to him, even if it was with a great deal of hesitation. Matthew also didn't seem to have changed much, though it seemed that Alfred saving his face from being horribly disfigured had made the other completely forget Alfred punching him in the balls. He was even nice to him, for the first week at least. Needless to say, because of the incident, Alfred had been unable to meet Arthur. He still cooked food for him though. He'd make him a meal in the morning and one at night and would leave it hidden within the bushes outside, being careful to stay out of sight of his brother. The next morning or in the evening, he'd find the plate again in the bushes the bordered the forest, licked clean. It always made Alfred smile, if only slightly.

Anyway, two weeks had passed since the incident and it was a weekend, meaning Alfred and Matthew had nothing to do but lay about the house, watching TV or movies or doing general housework. Alfred cooked breakfast that morning, scrambled egg with bacon, and found that they were running out of supplies. After putting the plate outside for Arthur, he walked back in and to the living-room, where Matthew was sitting on the couch in his polar bear pyjamas, watching a weird show about three guys trying to make money in a small American cul-de-sac.

"Matthew, I'm going out to buy food. Do you want anything?"

"A buxom babe?" Matthew replied immediately, not even looking away from the TV screen.

"Very funny." Alfred said, his tone heavy with sarcasm.

"I'm full of comedy gold, Alfie~"

Alfred sighed, though he had a tinge of a smile. He really didn't know what to do when it came to Matthew. He exited the living-room, grabbing his car-keys from their hook and opening the front door.

"Goodbye Matthew."

"Yep!" Matthew absently called back.

Alfred shook his head and left the house, closing the front door.

Soon, Matthew heard the sound of a car engine revving, coming to life. The sound of the car faded as Alfred drove into the distance. Matthew continued to watch the cartoon on TV for a bit before rolling onto his back, looking up at the ceiling and sighing. Matthew disliked weekends. They were boring back in America and they were boring in England. It would have been better if he'd at least had some friends – heck, even a sex-buddy - to go out with, but, so far, he didn't have any and even if he did there wouldn't be much to do anyway. The nearest town was a thirty minute drive from here.

"God, why am I cursed to live in the boring-ass countryside with my prude-ass brother with nothing to do but watch some stupid-ass cartoons?"

Of course, there was no answer. Even if there was, Matthew wasn't religious and would have ignored it. He continued to roll around on the sofa, getting increasingly bored as time went by. His brother wouldn't be back for ages, considering the closest store was about 10 miles from here.

"Come onnnnnn," Matthew whined, "at least give me _something _to do!"

_Knock, Knock._

His wish was granted.

Matthew whipped his head over to where the sound had come from. He found himself looking at the living-room window. Matthew always wondered what the point of that window was, considering the only thing you could see out of it was the edge of the dense forest that surrounded the house. He waited for a moment, then two, then three. He laid back down again, deciding the incident was just an illusion of the mind, caused of sheer boredom, when it happened again.

_Knock, Knock._

The knocking was slightly more forceful this time. Matthew knew he wasn't just hearing things now and got up from the sofa, the TV continuing on in the background. He moved slowly towards the window, cautious of the possibility that it may be some kind of beast from the forest (though he didn't know of any animal who could knock on windows).

As he looked outside he saw the things he had seen many times before: trees, grass and a bush or two, which marked the outline of the forest. There was nothing strange and Matthew could feel himself becoming deeply confused before there was a small rustling sound. It was the smallest of movements, but one of the bushes was twitching as if it were alive. Matthew smiled; this was getting interesting.

Matthew rushed out of the living-room, not caring to change out of his pyjamas as he put on his shoes, leaving the front-door keys behind.

"I wonder what kind of creature you are…" he mumbled as he closed in on the bush. He paused right next to the bush and then pounced on it, digging through it with his hands. To his surprise, he didn't find an animal but a ceramic plate, much like the ones in their kitchen. No, it was one of the one from their kitchen, it was the slightly cracked one from when Matthew had dropped it while trying to wash it. What was it doing out here though? Matthew tried to answer the question in his head, grabbing the plate, when he suddenly heard something from up above. It was a chuckling sound, deep and guttural. Matthew looked up into the trees, trying to find where the sound was coming from. He was met with a dark silhouette. The only thing that stood out from the shadowed figure was poison green eyes which seemed to shine in the gloom of the trees.

"W-who are you?" Matthew stuttered. No-one lived anywhere near here, except for him and Alfred. Who was this person, and why was he up a tree?

"Follow." the shadow replied abruptly. The shadow then turned around and shot off from the branch, running from branch to branch deeper into the forest.

Matthew didn't know what was going on and felt himself hesitate for a moment before he gulped and ran into the forest. He didn't want to seem weak by not following the figure and his curiosity drove him as he followed the silhouette.

Deeper and deeper into the forest they went, Matthew almost tripped a few times on exposed tree roots and old dead logs. He almost lost his way a few times before he suddenly ended up in a clearing. The clearing was familiar, with a small pond of rain-water and patches of flowers here and there. Matthew realised it was where he'd found Alfred when he had wandered into the forest on the first day and not returned. He looked up into the high branches, expecting to find the silhouette again to ask why he had been led here, to find it had completely disappeared.

"What? Where'd that bastard go?" Matthew said, looking around everywhere for the figure to no avail.

Meanwhile, up in the heights of the trees, Arthur looked down on the man who had invaded his territory and growled. Arthur had been napping when he'd heard loud footsteps on the forest floor and had smelt a scent which was entirely unfamiliar to him. He had woken up to find a human in the clearing. He had grunted, instantly becoming annoyed. Only his family and Alfred were allowed here. He observed the blond-haired man to find it was the same one who had come on the day Alfred had returned. His tails flicked with irritation and his eyebrows furrowed. He didn't know why the other was here and not Alfred, but he knew he needed to get him out of here. And quickly.

Matthew was still looking around, unconsciously holding the ceramic plate close to his chest like a shield. Besides the clearing and the blue sky above, he couldn't see much else, everything being obscured by trees and other foliage. He should just turn around go back right now, he told himself, leave now and forget that figure in the trees. But he couldn't, he just couldn't. The silhouetted figure couldn't have been human. The way he ran from tree to tree with such ease made him seem more beast than man. His curiosity kept him there, as it had kept him moving earlier on. He was still looking when he heard a dull thud behind him of something, or someone, hitting the ground. He started to turn, speaking as he did so.

"There you are, okay, who the hell are you and why did you bring me he-"

He cut himself off as he noticed the figure in front of him. It was a male, half-naked except for some old torn jeans. His eyes were green, just like the figure's eyes from before, though these ones were a darker emerald green. What drew the most attention however, were the pair of fox ears that poked out from the man's head and the two fox tails which trailed behind him, flicking to and fro in agitation.

"What are you doing here?" the fox-man said, his accent definitely British and just as agitated as his body language.

Matthew didn't speak, rendered speechless by the figure in front of him. He was definitely not human, not with those ears and tails.

The man repeated his words, his tone even more annoyed now, his eyebrows furrowing and a wrinkle appeared on his forehead as he frowned.

"What are you doing here? Speak."

Matthew, this time, decided he should try and speak. He gulped and then took a deep breath.

"My name is Matthew." he said, trying to keep his tone as neutral as possible.

Matthew may have been patronizing, but he knew when not to act stupid.

Arthur glared at the intruder as he said his name, picking out the accent in his voice. He wasn't from around here, in fact, he sounded a bit like Alfred. He knew there was probably a very good explanation for this, but his mind couldn't help formulating various ridiculous theories as to who the blond-haired man in front of him was.

Maybe he was a foreign shape-shifter who was leeching off of Alfred. Maybe he was a human spy who worked for the people who wanted to find mythical creatures to experiment on and was living with Alfred to look less suspicious. Or maybe, just maybe, he was Alfred's lover.

The last one, surprisingly, made Arthur angrier than the other two did. He could feel himself starting to grow angrier, as jealousy and worry kicked in. His eyes started to glow, his magical power leaking out as his emotions started to go out of control.

Matthew felt uncomfortable as the fox man glared at him. He was wondering whether he should make a break for it when the man's eyes started glowing. At first, it was only very slightly, more like a sparkle than a glow. But as time passed, the sparkle became brighter and more constant until it was obvious that they were glowing. Matthew could feel the atmosphere starting to become heavy and decided he should act submissive. After all, this guy seemed like he could do much worse than cave his face in. He raised his arms into a surrendering sign, holding the plate up in his right hand as he tried to calm the fox man down.

"Look, fox-guy, I don't know how I made you mad, but we don't have to fight do we?"

Arthur watched as Matthew brought his arms up in a submissive gesture. It was meant to calm him down, but it did the exact opposite. He noticed the other was holding up a ceramic disk in his right hand and Arthur looked at it to see it was the plate that Alfred had been using to feed him for the past two weeks. His mind took that information and combined it with his earlier theories as to who Matthew was. The results were not good as bleak ideas came into his mind. Images of Alfred being held in a cell. Sounds of him calling for help, though no-one would hear him. This man keeping him captive and possibly torturing him. He growled, then leapt forward and grabbed Matthew by the cuff of his clothing and hauled him up into the air.

"Where is he!?" he shouted.

Matthew suddenly felt himself be hauled up into the air by the fox man. He made a shocked noise, then looked at the man with a mix of confusion and fear. What the hell was this crazy fox thing talking about, where was who?

He tried to voice his thoughts but was cut off again by the man shouting at him.

"Where is he!? Tell me now or I'll make sure you never see the light of day again!"

Matthew felt himself start to shake uncontrollably as the threat sank in. He normally wouldn't have even flinched at the threat. But, the way that the man said it, made him feel like he should fear for his life. He felt his words become jumbled in his head. He couldn't speak.

"You won't tell me?" the fox man continued, "then I'll burn you to ashes."

The surrounding air started to get hotter and Matthew found himself beginning to sweat despite it having been cool just a moment ago. The heat continued to rise and Matthew looked down at the fox man to find the hand that wasn't holding him up was now encased in blue flame. Matthew started to struggle now as the heat increased further. The fox man held him in place however, his mind blank with rage as he slowly started to bring his other hand to Matthew's face. The distance started to close, slowly, slowly.

Fifteen centimetres away.

Ten centimetres.

Five.

"Arthur!"


	10. Of Tears and Fireflies

At hearing the shout, Arthur stopped his hand. The blue fire fizzled out immediately, as if it had never existed and he slowly stopped glowing. He dropped Matthew onto the floor, whose eyes were wide with fear. He seemed to be slightly shaking, though he tried to hide it as he saw his brother come out from the trees. Alfred was panting, having run the whole way here from the house, his wound hurting from the activity, though he didn't show it.

He'd returned home from the shopping to find the front door unlocked and his brother missing. He'd quickly gone into a panic, running around to try and find Matthew. He had looked outside too and that was when he had noticed the plate he had been using to feed Arthur had disappeared from the bush he and Arthur used as an unofficial drop point. His mind had taken seconds to link the dots and so lead to him being here. It looked like he'd got here just in time. He looked over at Matthew, still in his pyjamas and then at Arthur, who looked both shocked, confused and relieved all at once.

"Alfi-"

"What were you about to do to my brother!?" Alfred exclaimed, cutting of Arthur mid-word.

Arthur's eyes noticeably widened, his tails stopping dead in their wagging before flopping down. He paused, not speaking. He was just now realizing what he had been about to do and who to. When he realized it fully, his face drained of colour.

"I-I'm sorr-"

"What were you about to do?!" Alfred shouted again. Alfred may have thought many unsavoury things about his brother, in fact the whole of his family. But, he would not and could not let any of them get hurt. It was why he had saved him from Ivan two weeks ago.

Arthur jerked back as if he had been physically hurt at the volume and tone of Alfred's words, ears flattening against his head and stooping slightly.

"It's called Fox Fire… It's a manifestation of our magical power…"

"And you were going to burn my brother with it." Alfred said curtly, crossing his arms and glaring at Arthur.

There was a pause, a long pause. Arthur scratched his neck, feeling ashamed. He had to speak the truth though, he couldn't lie to Alfred.

"…Yes… but that was only because I thoug-"

"You thought wrong." Alfred said again, his sky blue eyes deadly serious. Arthur felt as if he was being stabbed by those eyes.

Alfred looked over at Matthew, who was still on the ground, still shaking from the shell shock of having almost having been killed by the fox-man, now dubbed Arthur by his brother. Matthew's mind was reeling and he found he couldn't move as thoughts swirled in and out of his mind. What the hell was Arthur? How did he know Alfred? What was going on in these god-damn woods?

Meanwhile, the conversation around him continued. Alfred stayed silent for a long while, looking at Matthew before turning back to Arthur, his eyes still dark.

"What do we do now?"

"…What?" the other responded cautiously, still stooped down in fear of the angry American.

"He's seen you, right? My brother doesn't know about you and what happened here when I was young…"

Arthur caught on from that. Alfred, despite everything, was still trying to protect him, protect his home. He knew his brother couldn't keep a secret like this, not even if he did trust him.

"Right…" he said slowly and turned to Matthew, who tried to shuffle away when Arthur approached him. It didn't do him much good as Arthur reached him and knelt by his side.

"I'm sorry." Arthur said as his eyes started glowing again. He raised a single finger and touched it to Matthew's forehead before the other could run away.

"You will not be able to remember what happened here today. Go home and go to bed and when you wake up, this will all be a nightmare."

Matthew's eyes were scared at first, then they started glowing as well, but only for a few seconds before they changed back to normal and suddenly became very sleepy. Arthur backed away, letting Matthew rise on his own.

Alfred didn't know what had occurred, but he assumed it was simply on of Arthur's powers and walked forward.

"Did you erase his memory?" he asked.

"No." Arthur replied matter-of-factly "we kitsunes may be powerful, but at the level I am at, I cannot erase a person's memory, only lock it away, like a trauma. He might as well have forgotten it though."

"Right." Alfred said, still not wholly understanding as he reached Matthew, who seemed to just barely be standing, and gave him his shoulder. Matthew instantly leaned on him with no snarky remarks and let Alfred help him towards the trees.

As they reached the edge, Alfred spoke again, looking away from Arthur.

"I'll be back later tonight. We'll talk then."

Arthur didn't respond verbally, though he nodded, knowing Alfred couldn't see him. Alfred didn't wait for him as he walked off, practically carrying Matthew with him.

It was 8 o'clock when Alfred left the house again. After taking Matthew home, which had been very difficult considering the terrain of the forest, he had put him back into his bed. Matthew had slept for a good three hours before waking up again and coming downstairs. As Arthur had said, he had no recollection of what had happened, all the way up to this morning. He did, however, say he'd had a killer nightmare. Alfred had stayed home the rest of the day, keeping an eye on his younger brother, who now seemed to be back to normal, snarky comments and all. Alfred had only left when Matthew had decided to go to sleep again, turning in early because there was nothing on TV and he said he felt completely shattered for some reason.

Alfred closed the front door behind him, locking it with a key before going off into the forest and to the clearing. It was even more difficult trying to traverse in the dark, but he managed it surprisingly well, as if his body knew exactly where the clearing was. As he approached the clearing, he noticed that it was lighter than the rest of the forest. As he got closer, he saw why. Fireflies, hundreds of them, were flying all around the clearing, lighting it up with their bodies. It was a beautiful sight. Among the fireflies, a figure stood, only a dark silhouette for a few moments before Alfred drew closer, enabling him to recognize who it was. It was Arthur, though it also seemed to not be him. He was facing away from Alfred and towards the small pool of rainwater, completely still, as if he were meditating.

"Arthur…?" Alfred said slowly, creeping forward slowly, feeling unnerved by Arthur's unusual silence.

Arthur's whole body twitched and his ears perked up for a moment before flattening against his head. He, however, didn't respond vocally.

"Arthur." Alfred said again, drawing himself up and with a more stern voice. After what Arthur had almost done earlier, it would have been nice to at least show some courtesy to Alfred.

Again there was no response, except for a single, strangled-sounding hiccup.

Alfred's eyes widened as he finally realized what was going on. He was crying. Arthur was crying. The cocky, fun-loving fox-man was crying.

But why?

"Arthur, turn around." Alfred said curtly, though he tried to soften his tone. He wasn't very good at comforting crying people – let alone fox-men. Arthur twitched again and now started trembling as Alfred closed in across the now seemingly infinite space between them.

"N-no…" he stuttered, trying hard to hide to hide the sadness in his voice.

It is needless to say that Alfred was feeling terrible at this point. He hadn't been that harsh, had he? Or did Arthur just hold him in such high regard that something like that was a deep blow? Words began to play in Alfred's head. Words of childish promise and endearment. Alfred shook his head, as if trying to force the words out of his mind. The more they played, the more he understood why Arthur was reacting the way he was and the more he felt bad.

At this point, he had finally reached Arthur, the buzzing of the fireflies seeming distant as time slowed and he grabbed Arthur's shoulders from behind and then proceeded to turn him around.

The fox-man did not resist, though he was still trembling.

When he was fully turned, it only confirmed what Alfred already knew. Arthur's eyes were red from crying and salty tears were still running out in an almost constant stream. His expression, which Alfred was so used to seeing smiling, was convulsed into a mix of regret, misery and fear.

"Arthur…" Alfred said sadly, incapable of saying much else. He didn't know what to say.

"I'm sorry," the other man said, looking down at the ground like a school-boy who was being told off by their teacher, "I really am."

It just kept repeating from there, like a chant or a magic spell, like Arthur thought that if he said it enough times, what he had done, or almost done, would be erased.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sor-"

"Stop!" Alfred finally exclaimed, no longer able to take the words and the feeling they gave him. The words played again. He gripped Arthur's bare shoulders tightly, barely even noticing what this might look like to someone else.

"Arthur, what you did was unforgivable. You could have almost killed my brother."

Arthur twitched at that and now tried even harder to hide his face from Alfred.

"But-"Alfred continued, "it isn't all your fault. I should have known this place was important to you, I should have remembered what you must feel about us humans… I shouldn't have shouted at you like that and not let you tell your own side… I'm sorry."

Arthur finally looked up into Alfred's eyes at this stage, his ears still flat against his head but his trembling now ceased as had his crying. Alfred took that as a positive sign and continued.

"So… if I forgive you, would you forgive me?"

Unknowingly, Alfred smiled as he said that, a warm, carefree - if maybe a slightly nervous - smile.

He was met with silence and thought he had maybe screwed it up when Arthur spoke.

"Idiot… how could I not forgive you when you use that smile of yours on me?"

Arthur's lips drew up in a smile and then he suddenly leapt forward, hugging Alfred tightly like a koala, wrapping his legs around Alfred's waist as well as his tails.

"Woah!" Alfred exclaimed, suddenly feeling quite top-heavy and noticing for the first time just how close they both were to the water's edge.

"Wait, Art-"

Getting closer.

"I'm going t-"

Balancing on the edge.

"Fall!"

Kersploosh!

Then they were both in the surprisingly deep pool of rainwater, swimming up and breaking the surface together. They looked at each other, eyes wide with the shock of falling into the water.

"I'm sor-"Arthur began to say before he was suddenly cut off by a light, breathy sound. He looked over to Alfred, eyes even wider than before, to see that he was laughing. Arthur felt his heart skip a beat.

Alfred couldn't help it, he really couldn't. This situation was ridiculous; he was swimming with a Kitsune in a deep pool of rainwater in the middle of a magical forest of which said Kitsune was king of. When he had stopped laughing, he looked at Arthur to find him staring with absolute amazement at Alfred, blood dripping from his nose.

"Hah, hah…" Alfred chuckled, swimming closer to the fox-man, "something wrong?"

A pause. Arthur was still staring at him.

"Arthur? Hey, are you ok-"He was stopped as Arthur suddenly came closer and kissed him directly on the lips. It was a strong, fiery kiss, something you wouldn't have expected from someone who had looked so weak just a few minutes ago.

When Arthur drew back, Alfred's eyes were a mix of hazed and wide. Arthur was a good kisser.

"What was that for?"

"I love you."

Alfred blushed heavily at the endearment, not used to hearing those words at all. To try and hide his embarrassment, he swept his arm across the water, spraying it in Arthur's direction.

"S-shut up!"

Arthur gave Alfred a questioning look before grinning and setting up his own counter attack.

After a while, the two of them really started to get into the childish water fight that had been created, laughing and jeering at each other like how they had in the past. It was the most fun that Alfred had had in god knows how long.

Eventually, the two of them moved to the shore, lifting themselves out, completely sopping wet, and laying on their backs in the grass. The fireflies continued to buzz above as they panted.

"Alfie?" Arthur said to Alfred after a short silence.

"Yeah?" Alfred said, smiling as he looked up into the night sky, not even caring that he had dropped his business tone and was now talking in a southern drawl.

"… When I was born, my mother was the only one there to look after me… She was a strong Kitsune, one of the strongest. She taught me how to survive and how to control my magic and everything." Arthur sighed, "But even she couldn't win against the odds stacked against us. By then, the war had mostly ended, though not entirely. We were found by humans and were told that if we did not wish to die, we would live under their control…"

Alfred stayed silent, like he had the last time Arthur had told him about his past.

"My mother… became an unwilling companion of the men of that group… she bore sons. My half-brothers."

"You have brothers?" Alfred questioned. He couldn't remember having seen them when he had first lived here. Arthur continued on though, as if he had never heard the question.

"After a couple of years, my mother couldn't take it anymore and stood up to the humans. She defeated them, at the cost of her own life. My brothers and I escaped, but before that, she told me; 'Protect this forest and your brothers from any humans who invade'."

Alfred twitched then, realizing something.

"Then why did you let me in?"

A pause, then Arthur turned and moved his body so he was now above Alfred, trapping the other with his arms. The light glistened off his wet skin and hair and it made him look… really sexy.

"Because you were just like me." He stated plainly, his face serious, "When I first saw you sitting down by a tree and crying, I learned that not all humans were bad. I protected you and when your father found you, I had already fallen in love, though it was only childish then. I didn't expect anything to happen…" Arthur moved down and kissed Alfred on the lips again, this time a soft one, "but then you came back."

Alfred blushed and questioned in his mind why he hadn't bothered moving or why he was letting himself be pinned like this. He stuttered as he spoke, cursing his lack of understanding in matters of romance.

"D-don't do that."

"What?" Arthur asked, a grin on his face "You like my kisses too much?"

"As if!" Alfred said, tilting his body to the side and rolling over, trapping Arthur below him now. Instead of looking shocked though, the fox-man just laughed.

"You're really cute… you always were."

Alfred blushed again, but this time was determined to take a more dominant role.

"No, you're the cute one!" He paused, then blushed even more. He hadn't thought of what he had said.

That did make Arthur look surprised, but it was short-lived as Alfred got up, getting off of Arthur.

As he stood, he felt an ache in his ribs and hissed. It was only now that he remembered that he was still injured.

"I have to go." Alfred said curtly, trying to put up a front so that Arthur wouldn't notice. If he did, he'd ask questions and Alfred didn't want another incident like the one earlier today.

"Why?" Arthur asked, curious as to why Alfred's face was making such a strange expression, like he was trying to hide something.

"Because I have work to do, a stupid brother to look after and I'm sure you do too."

Arthur got up slowly, eventually standing with Alfred. He was smiling, if a little sadly.

"Okay… will you still make me food? You're a great chef."

Alfred looked away at that, blushing to his ears. He wasn't used to being complimented. He started to walk towards the edge of the clearing, speaking as he did so.

"S-sure, I will… and I'll hide it in a better place this time."

Arthur smiled as Alfred left.

"You're so cute, my darling."

Then his face suddenly went serious and he looked up into the branches of the nearby trees. He couldn't see anyone, but one question remained.

Who had lead Matthew here?


End file.
